SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Belmont 79, Pepperdine 62
@Evansville 78,
Austin Peay 74 (OT)
@Jacksonville State 77, USC Upstate 61
@South Alabama 63,
Eastern Illinois 52
@Kansas State 89,
Southeast Missouri 71
@Murray State 100, Marist 63
@Mississippi State 92,
UT Martin 61
BELMONT 79, PEPPERDINE 62
NASHVILLE - Behind 21 points from senior Amanze Egekeze, Belmont University men's basketball defeated Pepperdine, 79-62, Saturday afternoon.
Egekeze, fresh off a career-high 32-point performance in Wednesday's victory over Milwaukee, went over 1,000 career points in the victory.
The Bruins made a season-high 16 3-pointers, shooting 61 percent from the field in the second half and limited the high-scoring Waves, entering scoring 77 points per game, to three field goals in the first nine and a half minutes.
Belmont got meaningful bench contributions from Hopkins, sophomore Michael Benkert and freshman Grayson Murphy in scoring nine of the final 13 points of the half in leading 37-26 at halftime.
Belmont shot 46 percent (13-for-28) from the field in the opening 20 minutes - including 9-for-21 from 3-point distance.
Five quick points from junior Dylan Windler gave Belmont a 42-29 lead with 18:51 remaining. Pepperdine closed within 46-37 on a Dunn basket, but the Bruins methodically turned defensive stops into high percentage shots and built a working margin. Egekeze capped an 11-2 Belmont run to make the score 76-52 with 3:23 to go.
All told, Belmont shot 54 percent (30-for-56) from the field - including 16-for-35 from 3-point distance.
Egekeze led four Bruins in double figures with 21 points. Luke added 16 points and seven assists. Windler and McClain each had 11.
Colbey Ross led Pepperdine (3-8) with 14 points.
EVANSVILLE 78, AUSTIN PEAY 74 (OT)
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - A dominant performance from freshman Terry Taylor led to a late rally on the road forced to force overtime, but Austin Peay State University men’s basketball team simply ran out of time against Evansville, falling 78-74 to the Purple Aces at the Ford Center, Saturday.
Taylor had one of the best performances of a still-young Austin Peay career, pouring in a career-best 30 points on 12-of-17 shooting to lead all scorers. But a resilient Evansville side hit timely three-pointers and willed itself to the line in overtime to overcome a late surge from the Govs.
Austin Peay jumped out to an early advantage thanks to Taylor, who scored six of Austin Peay’s first 15 points to build an early eight-point lead. But a 26-10 Evansville run reversed the script and seemed poised to take a large advantage into the break before a late Austin Peay surge cut the deficit to three at the break.
The Purple Aces would push the advantage as high as nine points with under 10 minutes to go in the second half, but a resilient Austin Peay squad wouldn’t go quietly. Taylor took over down the stretch, scoring 10 points in eight minutes as part of a 15-5 Austin Peay run to put the Govs ahead a bucket with 1:48 to go.
In the final minute of regulation, Evansville’s K.J. Riley hit four free-throws—part of a 14-of-17 showing at the line for him—to put the Purple Aces up three with one possession left. Working around the perimeter, senior Averyl Ugba got a wide-open look from the left side and drained a three with 1.1 to go to force overtime.
In the extra session, Riley had six points and Blake Simmons added five as the Purple Aces came out firing. Junior Zach Glotta hit a three to cut the Austin Peay deficit to two at the halfway point of the extra session, but that would be as close as the Govs got during the final frame.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 77, USC UPSTATE 61
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - Six Gamecocks scored in double-figures Saturday afternoon in a 77-61 victory over USC Upstate at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
JSU (8-3) accomplished the feat for the third time this season as Malcolm Drumwright (13), Jamall Gregory (12), Jason Burnell (12), Norbertas Giga (11), Marlon Hunter (11) and Christian Cunningham (11) accounted for 70 of Jacksonville State's 77 points scored.
The Gamecocks dished out 23 assists in helping to spread out the scoring effort, and eight of those belong to Gregory as he set a personal-best for helpers in a single game.
Giga and Cunningham completed double-doubles with 10 rebounds each, in addition to their 11 points each. The two towers steered the Gamecocks to outscoring the Spartans (3-10) 43-25, limiting the visitors to just seven offensive boards the entire game.
The Gamecocks improved to 5-0 with the win, marking the first time JSU has been perfect through five home games since the 2014-15 season.
Ray Harper's squad took a 35-30 to the locker room after jumping out to a quick 8-2 advantage to begin the game. Gregory scored 10 of his 12 points and five of his eight assists in the first period.
An eight-point run carried over from the first half into the second half for the Gamecocks. Giga scored four during the run and pulled down his final three rebounds during the period to complete his double-double performance. Burnell led the JSU scoring effort in the half with 10 points.
In total, Jacksonville State shot 50% (31-for-62) from the floor for the eighth time this season and held Upstate to 24 points in the paint.
SOUTH ALABAMA 63, EASTERN ILLINOIS 52
MOBILE, Ala. - Without the services of senior point guard Terrell Lewis on Saturday afternoon, Eastern Illinois was held to just four assists while committing 19 turnovers during a 63-52 loss to South Alabama at the Mitchell Center.
EIU fell to 2-7 on the season while South Alabama improved to 6-5.
Ray Crossland gave EIU its only lead of the game with a 3-pointer to open the game as Crossland lead EIU with 17 points.
South Alabama answered with a 3-pointer of its own by Trhae Mitchell as the Jaguars finished the day shooting 10-of-23 from 3-point range. USA would hold a two to four point lead for most of the first half as the Panthers were able to limit their turnovers and hold their own on the boards.
In the final four minutes of the first half Muusa Dama and Crossland both picked up their second fouls of the first half. Rodrick Sikes and Nick Davis hit 3-pointers in a 26 second span while EIU turned the ball over three straight times against full court pressure. Montell Goodwin would hit a running jumper as time expired to cut the Jaguars lead to 29-23 at the half.
South Alabama then forced five EIU turnovers in the first three minutes of the second half as they quickly pushed the lead to 36-25 with 17:54 to play on a lay-up by Mitchell. USA would lead by 17 points on free throws by Sikes with 14:02 to play. Sikes was one of four Jaguars in double figures with 13 points.
Jordan Andrews 3-pointer with 8:32 to play would give South Alabama its biggest lead of the game at 55-36. Andrews finished with 10 points.
Goodwin hit a jumper with 23 seconds left as EIU was able to get the lead back to single digits at 59-50. Goodwin had 11 points. EIU finished the night shooting 32 percent from the floor.
On the glass Dama pulled down 17 rebounds and just missed a double-double with nine points. EIU finished with a 45-34 rebound advantage with 16 offensive rebounds.
Herb McGee had 15 points to lead South Alabama. Josh Ajayi had 11 points and 8 rebounds. Mitchell just missed a double-double for the Jaguars with nine points, nine rebounds. USA finished the game with 25 points off turnovers.
KANSAS STATE 89, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 71
MANHATTAN, Kan. - Big 12 Conference member Kansas State (9-2) shot 62.5 percent and scored 44 points in the paint in a 86-66 win over Southeast Missouri (6-5) Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum.
KSU heated up to shoot 68.8 percent from the field and scored 32 of its points in the paint en route to a 53-39 halftime lead.
The Wildcats made 13 of their first 16 field goals and, at one time, made 10 in a row. KSU opened the game with a 16-6 run in the first 4:12. Dean Wade scored six of his 13 first-half points during that span.
Daniel Simmons and Denzel Mahoney knocked down 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to slice the Wildcats margin to 46-34 with 2:50 left to play. Mahoney later made two free throws to cut KSU's lead to 12 again before the Wildcats carried their 14-point advantage into the intermission.
Mahoney led all scorers with 20 points on 5-of-7 field goals and a perfect 9-of-9 free throws in the first half. He outscored the rest of his teammates which combined for 19 points. Fourteen of those came from Simmons off the bench. He made four of his five field goals from 3-point range.
SEMO managed to get within 11 points on two occasions early in the second half when Simmons buried a 3-pointer to make it 53-42 with 18:51 remaining and Justin Carpenter hit a jumper to make it 55-44 with 17:30 to go. That, however, was as close as the Redhawks would get.
Xavier Sneed's 3-pointer gave KSU its largest lead of the night at 82-57 with 6:27 on the clock before the Wildcats claimed their ninth win of the season.
KSU made 35-of-56 from the field and drained 11-of-23 three-pointers for 47.8 percent.
Sneed, one of four Wildcat starters in double figures, paved the way with 23 points. He went 9-of-10 from the field and 4-of-5 from downtown. Wade followed with 19 points, Kamau Stokes added 12 and Makol Mawien pitched in 10.
Mahoney finished with 23 points in 30 minutes. It was his team-high fifth 20-point game this year.
Simmons contributed 17 points and matched a career-high five 3-pointers made, while Carpenter had 13 points. Carpenter returned to the starting lineup after missing last week's game at Southern Illinois with a concussion. The Redhawks shot 43.9 percent (25-of-57) from the field and did not miss a free throw (10-of-10).
MURRAY STATE 100, MARIST 63
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State Racers hit the century mark in taking their fourth-straight home game in a 100-63 victory over the Marist Red Foxes at the CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky.
The Racers improved to 7-2 as they welcome in the Auburn Tigers to The Bank Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game.
MSU had 11 of their 12 players scratch the scoring column with Terrell Miller, Jr., getting 21 points on a perfect night from the field. Miller was 8-of-8 including 5-of-5 from the 3-point line. Ja Morant had his second-straight double-double with 16 points and 10 assists, while Shaq Buchanan added 14 and Jonathan Stark 12 to go with seven assists.
Trailing 10-9 at the 16:13 mark of the first half, the Racers sped past the Red Foxes and didn’t let up. They hit Marist with a 9-0 run and held the visitors to zero points over a stretch of 3:32. Morant had back-to-back steals which led to layups for Stark to give the Racers a 43-28 lead with 1:50 before half. MSU ended the half on a 22-4 run in the final 7:19 and hit their final five shots to lead 52-32 at the intermission.
MSU started the second half with an 8-0 run and Marist never got any closer than 19 points. The Racers eventually had their biggest lead of the game at 38 points with 43 seconds on the clock.
MISSISSIPPI STATE 92, UT MARTIN 61
STARKVILLE, Miss. - The University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team hung tough with Southeastern Conference opponent Mississippi State through the first half tonight but an extended second half run by the Bulldogs resulted in a 92-61 Skyhawk loss at Humphrey Coliseum.
The game featured 12 lead changes and four tie scores in the first half alone as a late Mississippi State run resulted in a 39-33 Skyhawk deficit at the break. The Bulldogs (9-1) then outscored UT Martin by a 53-28 margin in the final 20 minutes, at one point outscoring the Skyhawks 27-2 over a seven-minute span.
Matthew Butler poured in a game-high 22 points while also leading the Skyhawks (3-8) with five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Delfincko Bogan also pitched in 10 points, five rebounds and three assists for UT Martin.
Mississippi State was led by the duo of Aric Holman (21 points, 12 rebounds) and Quinndary Weatherspoon (21 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, four steals). Nick Weatherspoon added 11 points as the Bulldogs shot 67.7 percent (21-of-31) over the final 20 minutes.
Butler swished a three-pointer off a curl screen on UT Martin’s first shot attempt of the contest, giving the Skyhawks their first lead at 3-2. Moments later, Bogan stepped in to a three-pointer to make the score 6-4 in favor of UT Martin.
The Bulldogs took a three-point lead at the first media timeout but another Bogan trifecta and a 12-foot jumper by Dominique Williams provided the Skyhawks with a 13-11 advantage. Jailen Gill tossed in four straight points in under a minute while Darius Thompson sank a three-pointer from the right wing to keep UT Martin on top 11 minutes into the contest.
Mississippi State used a 7-0 run over a stretch of 85 seconds to claim a 27-22 lead at the 6:42 mark. Butler quickly answered with back-to-back three-pointers to tilt the score back in UT Martin’s favor with five minutes to play in the first half.
Another 7-0 Bulldog run took place as Mississippi State used its late momentum to take a 39-33 halftime lead.
Butler’s nine points led eight Skyhawks who scored in the first half. Holman accounted for 12 points to pace the Bulldogs in the opening half.
Mississippi State began the second half on a 9-1 run, taking a 48-34 lead in the process. Butler was responsible for UT Martin’s first field goal after the halftime break at the 16:44 mark but the Bulldogs came right back with 10 unanswered points to make the score 58-36.
The Skyhawks continued to battle, unreeling an 8-0 run to slice their deficit to 58-44 after a Williams leaner in the paint. Butler buried a three-pointer in transition to close UT Martin’s gap to 13 points (63-50) with 10:40 remaining.
However, Mississippi State tallied the next 18 points of the game and the Skyhawks would not get any closer than 29 points the rest of the way.